The BA at Work: Sociology and Anthropology Alumna/Marketing Mogul
Chronicling Carolyn Goodman’s academic and professional story is no easy task…
Goodman graduated from Carleton in 1977 with a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and Anthropology and has since gone on to become monstrously successful in the fields of marketing and advertising. Based out of San Francisco, Goodman holds an inherently cool and prolific job, has an even cooler family, is a tremendously active athlete, a pop culture aficionado, an enthusiastic world traveller, and an outdoor adventure junkie. She’s also a compassionate Carleton University mentor, who helped land her most recent mentee a dream job as a sport marketer in his dream city of Amsterdam (wow).
As stated at the outset of this introduction, beyond simply referring to her as an “inspiration,” profiling the very composite and fascinating life of Carolyn Goodman is not an uncomplicated task; so we asked her for some help…
The creative entrepreneur was kind enough to take time out of her unfathomably busy schedule to chat with FASS about school, work and life. Enjoy.
Could you give us a synopsis of your fascinating career path and some lesson you may have learned along the way?
After graduating from Carleton in 1977 with a BA in Sociology/Anthropology and then completing the Creative Advertising (my calling!) program at Algonquin College, I moved out west, and landed a job as a writer/producer at CFCN-Television in Lethbridge, and was lucky enough to follow that with a job at the Calgary offices of Cockfield Brown – one of the largest ad agencies in Canada. I worked my way up from media planner to Account Executive, and was lucky to keep writing and producing commercials as well. After moving to California in 1983, I talked my way into a job at Chiat/Day — the “hot” agency who handled the Apple business (although everyone else at the agency worked on Apple, I worked on start-up retailer BusinessLand, one of the first PC retail chains!).
As is typical in this business, I worked at several different large agencies over the course of the next 20 years including Ogilvy & Mather Direct, DDB Needham and client-side at Bank of America and 1st Nationwide Bank. In the early 1990’s I was tapped to move to Toronto to open a Canadian beachhead for direct response agency Cohn & Wells, and discovered that I was also very good at new business development, landing Bell Canada, Stentor and BC Tel at the beginnings of telecommunication deregulation.
I took all of those skills and experiences and finally struck out on my own in 2002.
I opened my own agency (which was based out of my home), Goodman Marketing Partners — a full-service marketing company. After my husband discovered a large meeting of 30+ people in the living room one day, he gently suggested I rent some office space — and the rest is history.
I continue today as the President and Creative Director of Goodman Marketing Partners.
Throughout the course of my career I’ve discovered that I have an equal balance of left brain and right brain skills — I love the creative challenges involved with conceiving an idea and bringing it to life, but I also love analyzing data, and figuring out what it’s really telling me about a business opportunity. I’ve also learned an immense amount about self-discipline — and to never, ever, ever give up. Just because somebody tells me “no,” I don’t take it personally. Instead, it just fires me up to work smarter and harder.
What is your role as mentor for Carleton U?
When I first signed on to be a mentor, I knew it would be challenging. I’d already had one son graduate from college and was lucky that he had mapped out a path for himself in surfing and photography, so I had no experience “guiding” him. When I was introduced to my first mentee via Skype, we spent the first few meetings just getting to know each other and trying to figure out what career path he wanted to pursue. But once we discovered his passion, we were off and running.
I treat the role as an opportunity to help guide a student into a job that will launch their career. I’m happy to answer questions about the marketing/advertising industry, my day-to-day job, or provide an overview of the advertising and marketing landscape. But more importantly, I give extremely tactical advice about how to put together a solid resume and LinkedIn profile, and how to self-brand. Together we look at and evaluate job opportunities, and I help my mentee research and make contact with other people who can help him land that “perfect” job. By analyzing the profiles of his key targets, I help him understand the right industry lingo to use, how to make contact and follow up, and how to prepare for a job interview. I help prepare a lifestyle budget in order to determine salary requirements and I get as excited as my mentee does when everything starts to fall into place!
A degree in the arts prepared me to have a curious and open mind; to research and explore alternate ideas and respect points of view that may be contrary to my own.
Why did you choose Sociology as your major?
When I enrolled at Carleton I was only 16 (!), and I had no idea what I wanted to do. After taking Introduction to Sociology, I became fascinated with the entire discipline and how the world was purposefully organized into networks and institutions. I loved that it included research and critical thinking – and actually got excited the first time I turned in my punch cards to try and create a cross-tab report! I apply many of the insights about human behavior into my marketing work as my job is to motivate target audiences to take an action.
How has your arts degree been an asset in helping you achieve your great professional and entrepreneurial success?
In 2016, many students are pushed into determining a career path beginning in high school in order that they might find the right university that will prepare them for their future. I think that’s a lot of pressure to put on a student who is still trying to figure out who they are and life in general.
Instead, I encouraged my kids to find a subject that interested them by taking a wide variety of classes in their freshman year – and if Carleton hadn’t insisted that, as an undeclared major, I take a variety of classes, I never would have discovered Sociology.
A degree in the arts prepared me to have a curious and open mind; to research and explore alternate ideas and respect points of view that may be contrary to my own. Today, my job involves working with a wide variety of people who all bring different perspectives to the table, so it’s apt that I am prepared to understand group dynamics and consensus-building principles. Plus, I know how to look at research critically, ask questions and form conclusions or theories that can help advance a marketing strategy.
What practical advice can you offer to Carleton’s FASS students and recent grads?
Rarely does anyone graduate from high school, fully prepared to make a contribution to the business world. Of course there are exceptions, but even living in entrepreneurial San Francisco, I meet plenty of young people who are full of great, big, ideas, but don’t know how to write a business plan or how to frame their idea to an investor or even how to research and determine if there is even a market for their idea. A secondary degree should help give you the time you need to explore new topics, ask questions and figure out what interests you. Then, seek out people in that industry and find out what they do and how they got there.
You can find lots of working professionals at industry events, so sign up and get ready to be social! Introduce yourself, engage in conversation and ask for informational interviews — and then show up prepared to ask questions (and write down the answers) about what they do, what it’s like to work in that industry and what it might take for you to get a job in that category. There are so many professionals who would be happy to help recent grads, but never get asked for help!
Make sure your personal brand is ready — set your social network sites to private; critically evaluate your tweets (and if they’re not appropriate for the business world, delete your account and start again); set up your LinkedIn profile with a professional photo and engaging summary. Link in to friends, professors and other Carleton alum and then network, network, network!
A career in advertising and marketing is so coveted! In your experience and opinion, what makes the profession so sought-after?
What keeps advertising and marketing interesting for me is that the work has so much variety to it, so every day is different. Last week, for example, consisted of writing, casting and recording three radio spots; an all-day photo shoot in a grocery store; writing and designing ten different digital ads; going on a press check to check the color on a printed piece; sitting behind a one-way glass watching consumer focus groups; analyzing email open rates, click through and sales conversion results; writing a marketing proposal for a new client and working with a video editor on three product-focused videos for a tech client. And yes, over the years I’ve worked with lots of “famous” people, travelled to practically every state and Canadian province, spent two weeks in Hawaii on a shoot (really, really tough work!), enjoyed meals at some of the top restaurants, stayed in luxurious hotels and been treated like royalty.
I’ve been at judge at the Direct Marketing Association ECHO Awards for many years, and have seen some creative work that I’ve truly coveted — but I’ve also got work in my own portfolio that I’m very proud of… like the miniature Zen garden that we turned into a construction site and sent to executives at the top ten homebuilders in the U.S.; or when we sent one half of a two-way radio to CFO’s and told them they’d get the other half when they met with a sales rep to talk about 401(k) plans. Both those campaigns yielded superior results for the client. Advertising is such a visual medium that it’s hard to describe something that’s highly creative without showing it.
Do you view your profession as a type of artistry?
Direct response marketing is a combination of art and science. While the science is in the ability to profile a target audience and then use a variety of media tools to find likely prospects, the artistry is in the strategy of message and how to create a compelling unique selling point that stimulates a response. I’ve seen plenty of “great” ideas fall flat because they were not executed properly.
Who are some of your personal heroes and how do they inspire you?
Many of my heroes are in my family — my husband who also runs his own ad specialties business; my oldest son who creates surfing videos and has his own photography business; my twins (one is studying acting and ad libs on stage better than anyone I’ve ever seen; the other wants to study Game Design at Carleton and has already had paid game design gigs with Dell and other companies). All are tremendously creative, innovative and hardworking, but a blast to spend time with.
The prof. who inspired me the most was actually the Senior Res Fellow in Renfrew House, Dr. Ken Hatt. Ken was a professor of Sociology at St. Patrick’s College and I remember spending many an evening in his student-crowded living room debating life issues. He was a wonderful man who was very encouraging of every student in the dorm, no matter what subject matter they were studying.
Are you a binge reader or TV/movie watcher? If so, can you offer our FASSinate readers some recommendations? What else do you do for fun in your (likely limited) downtime?
I formed a book club many years ago because I was afraid I wasn’t finding enough time to read, and I knew that if I was held to a monthly dinner meeting and discussion, I would live up to my commitment! We’ve explored many wonderful books that I may not have picked up on my own and for that, I am deeply grateful.
I am a binge TV watcher… but I tape everything and watch it when I have time. I enjoy a lot of British series that have with quirky characters like “Doc Martin,” “River,” “Broadchurch” and “The Fall.”
Having a structured day is the best way for me to get everything done, so I get up at 5:30 am and swim for 45 minutes (living in California has its advantages!); I mountain bike on Saturdays and hike every Sunday morning before church; Take boxing classes week nights; Play on a co-ed softball team in the summer and try to take a major trip each year. One year it was hiking in Nepal to the sacred city of Lo-Manthang (founded in 1380), three years ago I hiked the West Coast Trail of Vancouver Island with my siblings and a 50 lb. pack on my back; most recently it was a trip to Machu Picchu in Peru with my husband. Next up? Who knows!
What topic do you love talking about?
Given the political climate in the U.S., it’s hard NOT to talk about politics and the embarrassment of it all. But more often than not, the conversations with my friends are about travel, our kids and the next chapter of our lives — because retirement is right around the corner!
Any parting words of wisdom?
My advice to students and grads is simple: Embrace life. Find something that excites you and work hard at it to be the best you can be, and I promise that you’ll be rewarded with a rich and fulfilling life. Oh, and have a little fun along with way.